Sam's Memories

In a way Debacle Fest 2009 was the most pure example of what Debacle Fest is trying to represent. It was two nights of nearly every band who has released something on the label at that point, forget the later idea of a "Debacle Family Night" this whole fest was family. After the previous year I knew I wanted to try to make a real multi-day festival. This was the year that really took that familial vibe of the first year and tried to see how far we could take it. This was also one of the very first shows ever for Megabats, my first and only band.

The flyer was designed by Kristian Garrard (of Thousands, Lonesome Shack, King Tears Bat Trip) who performed under his KRGA alias at the time. I believe that actually is a portrait of me.

I remember I attempted to release a whole set of albums for the fest this year including the first Megabats album "in/out". I think it ended up being a pretty sizable stack of releases.

One fun note is that these nights were counter programmed by both Portable Shrines' Escalator Fest and Decibel Festival. The fact that this was barely a blip on my radar at the time just shows how silo'd all the scenes in Seattle were and how narrow the focus on Debacle was at the time.

Also it must be noted that this year kicked off the two longest streaks of appearances at Debacle Fest, L.A. Lungs and Mitchel Bell (Thunder Grey Pilgrim, knifecream) are still maintaining their dominance of the most appearances category.